ICC World Cup 2023: It's a high five for Afghans!

Afghanistan players celebrate a wicket yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

It was a must-win game for Afghanistan to keep their semi-final hopes alive and they did not disappoint their supporters, registering a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over the Netherlands at the Ekana Stadium here yesterday.

This was their fourth win in seven matches at this World Cup, but getting to the knockouts still won't be easy as their last two games are against top teams Australia and South Africa, both of whom are battling to get into the last four.

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Clinical performance

It was a clinical performance by Afghanistan on a red soil pitch that assisted spinners. Little wonder they went in with four spinners, bringing in young left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmed at the expense of pacer Naveen-ul-Haq. The spin quartet had such a hold on the Netherlands batters that in desperation four of the top five Dutchmen were run out. That virtually took the steam out of their challenge as they could post only 179 before being bowled out in 46.3 overs.

Their main Dutch batters, Max O'Dowd (42), Sybrant Engelbrecht (58) and Colin Ackermann (29), were all run out when they were well set for big scores. Had they been more vigilant, they could have given their bowlers a bigger total to defend. Besides four run outs, the other six wickets were bagged by the three spinners, with the pick of the lot being off-spinner Mohammed Nabi (3-28). Strangely, Rashid Khan went wicketless though he was frugal as he gave away just 31 runs in his 10. Noor impressed again as he picked up a brace for just 31 runs.

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The Dutch too had a three-pronged spin attack, with leg-spinner Sadiq Zulfiquar added to Aryan Dutt and veteran Roelof van der Merwe, but all that the threesome could do was make the Afghan batters fight for each run on a pitch when free-flowing strokeplay was not easy. The Afghan top-order though has been batting well, having won two earlier matches with calculated batting and this time too, their performance was along the same lines.

Rahmat in fine form

There was a fine half-century by Rahmat Shah (52), his third in a row after match-winning knocks of 77 v Pakistan and 62 v Sri Lanka. After Shah's departure, it was left to skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (56 not out) to take the team home and he did so with as many as 18.3 overs to spare.

With this win, Afghanistan have climbed to the fifth spot and are on eight points alongside Australia and New Zealand, who have a better NRR than them though. At this stage, it may be difficult for Afghanistan to make it to the semis, but nobody can rule them out just as yet.

Brief scores
The Netherlands 179 all out in 46.3 overs (S Engelbrecht 58, M O'Dowd 42; M Nabi 3-28, N Ahmad 2-31) lost to Afghanistan 181-3 in 31.3 overs (H Shahidi 56', R Shah 52, A Omarzai 31') by 7 wickets